The IT transformation journey

Learning how to blend traditional IT with as-a-service offerings is one of the keys to success in the digital age.

In today’s digitally driven economy, organisations need to realise the benefits of IT modernisation to remain agile and efficient… otherwise they simply will not cope with the changes that their operations are facing. Part of that process is working out how best to bridge the gap between traditional IT systems and newer, as-a-service offerings. We asked Meridian IT Australia’s Head of Architecture and Services, Robert Simione, to gives us his thoughts on how to achieve this.

How can traditional IT work hand in hand with IaaS?

When considering new IT systems, or even refreshing IT systems, organisations need to understand their workloads and lay the foundation in the platform to enable them to leverage hybrid or multi-cloud technologies. Analysing what workloads or applications are required, how you want to consume and the level of integration and management you wish to undertake are all requirements for determining the solution that is right for your organisation, whether it is hybrid cloud or multi-cloud, including SaaS models.

Almost everything has an as-a-service counterpart these days. How much further can it go?

There’s virtually no limit to the extent of as-a-service models, and most service providers today are looking at how they can leverage this model to deliver recurring services to organisations.

Organisations benefit from the fact that this is 100% OPEX, and there are defined service levels and uptime objectives. The as-a-service models can be predictable in costs, or are generally based on a consumptive service. With the era of public cloud, the majority of organisations are wanting to ‘consume’ and they like the flexibility of pay-as-you-need or -use. While there could be an inherent higher cost, this is often negated by the fact that you are not needing to capitalise for future growth; you can simply scale your business when required. This gives organisations agility and flexibility, in terms of allowing them to transform, run more efficient IT operations, reduce operational costs and free up more funding for innovation and faster time to market.

Robert Simione, Head of Architecture and Services, Meridian IT Australia

Is there much corporate inertia or reluctance to explore new opportunities?

Most organisations are generally well informed of latest technology, but I think the role of the service provider in today’s era is to work with the organisation to determine which technology is right for them — right for the specific use case, or workload. Modernising IT should be top of mind for any organisation.

Some data coming through with regard to IT transformation says that organisations which transform have an 18x faster time to market, 8x enhanced IT spending efficiency and 16x increased innovation (according to the Enterprise Strategy Group). This suggests that doing nothing is no longer an option.

What are some of the hidden benefits of IT transformation?

Although IT transformation is not synonymous with digital transformation, the two concepts are fundamentally linked, as digital transformation cannot happen without IT transformation. An organisation that transforms its IT infrastructure no longer has to rely on rigid, manual, siloed, legacy technologies. It sees a boost in IT operational speed, efficiency, scale and cost-effectiveness — tasks are automated, processes streamlined and resources are freed up. Those IT-level improvements fuel a larger-scale digital transformation, enabling the organisation to thrive in today’s digital economy.

If you then combine IT transformation with cloud-like or as-a-service offerings, you are able to take advantage of the benefits of IT transformation faster, by leveraging ready-built or referenced architecture. However, for most organisations this a journey, and having a trusted service provider along the journey will make the task less daunting.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/peshkov

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